CJ Pakistan requested to take notice of brutal torture and murders of domestic worker children

June 22, 2013- Islamabad: On June 6, 2013, Jameel, 13 years old, succumbed to head injuries and the pain of torture by the employer and died at the rooftop of the rich employer’s house in Multan. The ISJ urges the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take actions against the culprit landlord and protection of Jameel’s family and ban child domestic labour. The ISJ press release says that there has been reported 22 murders of child domestic workers in the last three years since January 2010.

In August 2012, two minor brothers, Javed 9 and Jameel 13, were taken against their parents’ will from their village Kotla Rahm Ali Shah in Muzaffargarh to work in Multan city as servants in the house of Faheem Abbas Shah, the landlord, for whom, two brothers’ family worked for a number of years.

The parents of the boys repeatedly asked for the return of their sons. They wanted their boys to get education in the city but the landlord Faheem denied the request and did not allow the boys to visit their parents for the past several months and continuously mentally and physically tortured both boys.

According to Jameel’s father (Hameed) and his another brother Javed, on the afternoon of June 6, Jameel tried to pour himself juice but broke the glass pitcher in the process. Javed was not only victim of the brutal torture by his employers but also witness of torture and murder of his brother Jameel. Faheem’s wife, Hina was so enraged on Jameel for daring to drinkher juice and cracking her glass pitcher. She began beating with kicks, fists, punches and with everything that she found easy to throw on Jameel. Jameel managed to escape to the rooftop of the house of the employer where he died due to torture and continuous bleeding.

According to Jameel’s father the person, Hafiz Amjad, who washed the boy’s body was astonished by the bruises on the boy’s body and found large, sharp shards of glasses in the boy’s skull. Hafiz Amjad has asked Jameel for reporting the case and undergoing for an autopsy but Hafiz Amjad’s suggestions were quickly silenced because of Faheem. The hemorrhaging was so severe that they had to pack the head wound with additional gauze minutes before the burial on June 7.

According to Hameed he did not report the case with the police because, he said, “I thought they are landlord and we are mazarey and poor”. He said that Faheem landlord’s cousin is head of the district police in Multan and Faheem’s maternal uncle is prominent PML-N MNA Ahmad Alam Anwar in Bahawalpur.

On June 19, two constables from Jatoi police station had come to meet with Hameed and received complaint on simple paper. Hameed is scarred of life threats to his family.

Hameed also understands how his son, Hafeez, 12 years old, had died two years ago at the house of the same landlord family. Hafeez’s was hit on his head, that is why he had lost consciousness and died after a couple of days, but they did not understand and kept silence because they could not afford enmity with the rich family. Hameed and his family are waiting for the justice of murders of his two minor sons but he does not trust the system but has faith in the Chief Justice of Pakistan. He has asked civil society organizations to get his appeal reach at the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

The ISJ requests the Chief Justice of Pakistan for taking suo-moto on the unreported and unregistered case of murder of child domestic worker (Jameel) and help the victim family and may order to ban child domestic labour in Pakistan, it is the only profession in Pakistan that has resulted so many deaths of children.